Darkness, My Old Friend
by She's a Pistol
Summary: Felicity is taken in by DOMA. Dartz has her in his sights due to her strange abilities and knows she can be manipulated thanks to the abuse from her ex. Her fear of men will have to be put on hold while she helps a crew of them destroy the world. And what is it about her that interests Kaiba so much?
1. Chapter 1

Felicity had never considered herself a duelist. On her break at work she'd do it for fun with a guy who worked at the bistro down the street, but competitively she had no interest. She had the logic and wit to formulate a strategy against any deck without having to alter her own. It took a lot of the fun out of the game for her.

Recently the bistro became unbearable to walk to, as her ex-boyfriend worked across the street and she would have to go by him to get to the bistro. She only just found out he was sleeping with her coworker, Jackie, who she worked with every day, and every day received the same fake smile and the same fake pleasantries from the girl who was just working the knife deeper into her back.

Felicity was throwing the garbage out into the dumpster at the back of the parking lot while Jackie was closing the store up. She tried to ignore the other girl, repeating The Serenity Prayer endlessly in her mind to keep herself sane, reminding herself that she can't control others and what they do doesn't concern her anymore. It still hurt.

"Hey there," a voice called to her. Her head swiveled and she peered into the growing darkness.

A figure emerged from the shadows. His red hair was chopped short in layers, and he wore an odd Gothic trench coat with buckles everywhere and red knee-high boots. He also wore a cropped top, and she wasn't entirely sure of the gender of this individual, but relying on the voice she was sure he was male.

"I'm Alister. I've come to help you."

Her eyes widened; this area of the state was very safe, mostly wealthy tourists. Attacks were very rare and the few that happened made front page news.

"Thanks, but I don't need help," she said, looking around to see if any other stores in the square were still open in case she needed to cry for help. Unfortunately, she found she had been kept late beyond quitting time due to straggling customers and all other shops were closed and their workers long gone. She cursed leaving her knife in her purse and not having it on her like Jessie always nagged her.

"Oh, but you do. I know all about Jessie and what he's done to you. I can help you exact revenge on him for the pain he has inflicted in you."

He had finally caught her attention. "Who are you?" she asked warily.

"Alister. The first swordsman of DOMA."


	2. Chapter 2

She had left everything behind that night. Her car was still in the parking lot the next morning, her timecard was not punched with a clock out time. Her purse was still on the shelf in the employee room.

Felicity had just vanished.

While her parents were calling police and generally freaking out, Felicity herself was in perfectly safe condition. Well, as perfectly safe as one could be on the back of a motorcycle going probably at least twenty over the already fast highway speed limit. Her trademark copper colored curls had been tucked up into the helmet Alister gave her, lest anyone recognize her. She was now a runaway, at seventeen.

She never would have thought of herself as the type to run away, but she didn't think much of herself as a duelist, either. She had always been responsible. Straight-A student, varsity volleyball player as a sophomore, on the student council and SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving). She met Jessie, who seemed a dream boyfriend. He only trapped her and tormented her. He became her nightmare.

Alister promised her excitement, a way to change the world. A way to escape Jessie. A way to exact revenge.

The motorcycle began to slow, and Alister's voice echoed in her helmet via Bluetooth, "I'm starving. How about you?" They had been driving all night straight, and Felicity's only complaint was that her body ached from being hunched over on the bike for several hours.

"Not hungry," she answered as he took an exit. He followed signs to a popular diner. With all the people at the restaurant, no one would pay them any extra attention.

They were seated and given menus. Alister glanced through, quickly locating what he always ordered in a breakfast diner. Felicity propped her chin up with her hand looked out the window without even touching the menu. She looked bored. The waitress brought their coffee, and while Alister added a couple packets of sugar and a creamer, she drank hers black.

"A girl who drinks coffee black? You're weird," he prodded.

She shrugged without looking away from the window, the forlorn look never wavering from her features.

"Not up for talking?"

She sighed and looked down at her hands, with which she had begun shredding a napkin. Her lips parted several times, as though she were going to speak and then they would close.

"I don't want you to think I'm rude," she began with an apology. "I'm already becoming homesick. I don't know where this is going to end. I don't know how to be a person anymore."

At this last statement, Alister narrowed his eyes and leaned forward slightly, remembering that Dartz's orders were to gain her trust to bring her to their side.

"I've seen what Jessie did to you. You didn't deserve that." He actually hadn't seen what Jessie had done to her, but she didn't know that. Her violet eyes shot up and met his steel ones. He wasn't expecting her to do that, and ended up inspecting her eyes. They were gorgeous, accentuated with gold eye shadow and mocha eyeliner and mascara.

"How do you know about Jessie and what he did to me?"

The waitress brought Alister's plate, and refilled their coffees.

When she left, Alister spoke. "Our leader knows all. His name is Dartz. He was the one who saw you hurting and who sent me to save you." A perfectly manicured eyebrow quirked, and he knew he had come off as a looney.

"You're not going to take me to a jungle convent to poison me, are you?" she asked, trying to make her tone light but studying his response. Dealing with Jessie's narcissistic psychotic rampage had given her a crash course in psychology.

Alister's features darkened, and her anxiety spiked, hoping she hadn't made him mad. She didn't know what this guy was capable of.

"It's not like that," he defended quickly. "We are going to cleanse the world of people like Jessie. What do you have to lose?" Felicity's mouth dropped into a frown.

"What about my family?" As dysfunctional as her family was, she still loved them.

"You'll have a chance to save them."

"And what exactly are we doing to 'cleanse the world'? It sounds like the Holocaust and if it's anything like that I want absolutely no part in it."

Alister smirked. "It isn't anything like that, don't worry. I'd rather have Dartz explain it to you when we get there."

"Where is there?"

"You'll see."

Felicity gave up asking questions as he gave fewer and fewer word answers. She was probably annoying him, but it was hard to tell.

"Am I annoying you?"

He didn't look up from his plate as he casually responded, "Yes." He noticed how quickly her demeanor dropped to that of a kicked puppy. He looked up and frowned.

"What's wrong?" he asked, wondering how severely her psychosis was damaged from her ex.

"All I do is annoy everyone. It was Jessie's biggest complaint," she answered in a small voice. She excused herself to the bathroom as tears sprung to her eyes. Alister watched her walk away in surprise. She went to tears over nothing. He hadn't even used a mean tone when he admitted she was annoying him.

This mission will be the hardest he had yet. He didn't know anything about girls. There weren't any women swordsmen. Well, he figured they'd be called "swordswomen." While mulling over these thoughts, he realized he didn't really know how to get along with people in general.

"Raphael would know what to do," he thought as he kicked himself for upsetting her. He didn't know what her limits were. All Dartz said was she had been mentally and emotionally abused by her ex. No mention to how bad it was.

Felicity returned and Alister racked his brain trying to figure out a way to make her feel better without apologizing and bringing the whole issue up again. Wracking his brain, nothing surfaced.

Luckily his phone went off right at that moment. He glanced at the screen, and stood to walk out of Felicity's earshot while he answered Raphael.

"You have the girl?"

"Her name is Felicity, and yes she's with me. We're eating. Well, I'm eating. She won't."

"Dartz said she probably wouldn't."

"Wouldn't what? Eat?"

"Yeah. Just hurry up and meet us at the rendezvous point. I wanna get out of this shitty town."

"Whatever." He snapped his phone shut and headed back to their table, where the check lay. Felicity was back to staring out the window, thinking God knows what. He threw some bills down on the table and she jumped up instantly, not wanting to piss him off. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He didn't respect her, she was too eager to please, but he couldn't help pitying her.

There's an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time.

They pulled on their helmets and roared off into the rising sun.


	3. Chapter 3

After a couple of hours on the back of the bike, Felicity began wondering if they were going to stop for gas. They've ridden for hours and hours...the landscape had once been hilly and farms were abundant and was now flat and she figured she hadn't seen a building or another vehicle pass them for over an hour. Where the hell were they? She was exhausted, her body ached from being jostled around on the back of a sport bike, hunched behind this absolute stranger who whisked her away from her home town.

She had a lot of time to think about what she had done, but by this point there seemed no way out. She figured her life was basically worthless anyway, so what would it matter if he did just kill her and leave her there? Was she even afraid of this possible outcome? What the hell possessed her to leave home anyway?

Oh yeah. Jessie. That prick.

A surge of anger suddenly overtook her and she silently vowed to end him.

The bike began winding down and she realized they were braking. She shifted her head, a hundred times heavier with the helmet, and peered around Alister to see why they were stopping.

A freaking plane was parked in a field. In the middle of nowhere there was a plane.

As she tried to wrap her head around this, and the sudden terrifying idea that maybe she had somehow accidentally joined the mafia, a ramp slid out of the cargo area in the back of it and Alister accelerated enough to hurdle up it. Felicity shrieked and clung to him tighter. He laughed.

"Scare you?" He taunted. She didn't reply but he knew he had embarrassed her.

Once the bike was safely parked next to two other motorcycles in the cargo area, Alister pulled his helmet off and dismounted. Felicity removed her helmet too, and shook her hair out. An armored hand appeared in front of her, and it wasn't Alister's. She looked up into huge sky blue eyes and a mess of brown hair.

"Oh dun tell me that Alister's gone 'n scared yah. Ah'm Valon. Third Swordsman uv DOMA."

"Um. Hi, Valon."

"Lemme help you off tha' bike." Without warning, Valon put his arms around Felicity and lifted her off and set her on her feet. He was surprised at the shock on her face.

"Ah you okay?" He asked worriedly.

She furiously nodded, because she couldn't trust herself to speak. It had been bad enough hanging onto Alister that whole time on the motorcycle, but for this guy to just literally grab her off! What the hell?!

"Don't touch her," came yet another gruff voice. This guy was a blonde, and looked like he just spent the last ten years lifting weights in prison. He could break a twig like her in half if he wanted!

"You need to learn how to respect people's personal space, Valon," he scolded. To Felicity, he said, "I'm Rafael."

"Hi...I'm Felicity. Most people call me City."

Alister raised an eyebrow. She hadn't told him that.

Whatever.

Felicity was feeling quite overwhelmed and faint, and, though she didn't want to admit it, hungry. Fortunately the men led her to the seating area and she gratefully collapsed in a window seat. The plane was very small, and only held twelve seats, which were more than enough for their motley crew. She wondered where the pilot was when Rafael opened the door to the cockpit and disappeared.

Glancing around, avoiding eye contact with either Valon or Alister, Felicity noted the plane seemed to be an old WWII plane. It was sparsely furnished: the utilitarian seats were upholstered in dingy brown vinyl, the floor was bare metal, and the walls and windows were held together with massive rivets. She briefly wondered if it was safe, then dismissed the thought. Who cared? Whether it crashed or landed safely at wherever "Dartz" was, she was on a plane with a bunch of strange men for...who knows how long. And who knows what's going to happen when they landed? Doesn't really pay to worry about it.

"You alrigh'?" Valon asked her. She shrugged exhaustedly.

A bottle of water was thrust in front of her. She glanced up at Valon before accepting it.

"Thanks," she murmured. Unfortunately for her, he took that as a green light to take the aisle seat next to her. She leaned up against the wall as far as she could without it being obvious.

Alister noticed, however. "Give her space, Valon."

Valon growled at him, and they proceeded to bicker. Felicity managed to tune them out due to exhaustion and fell asleep.

Twelve hours later she was being gently shaken awake. Disoriented, she panicked trying to figure out where she was.

"Calm down," a deep voice very close to her ordered. She whipped her head around and found Rafael crouched between her row of seats and the row in front of her. Valon was still in the seat next to her, also asleep, and he got a much less gentle awakening. Rafael grabbed the front of his outfit and hoisted him over his shoulder.

"OY!" Valon screeched as he snapped awake. Rafael threw him down next to his bike. Alister was already walking his down the ramp. Felicity felt oddly hurt by his action. He left Rafael to wake her when he could have done it but he'd rather get his bike off the plane?

Whatever.

She followed the boys down the steep ramp and ran a hand through her hair, which must have looked like a giant rat's nest. She attempted to disentangle the waist-length curls before figuring she was making it worse and abandoning it.

They were in what looked like a cavern. The boys parked their bikes along the wall and continued walking through a stone tunnel. Felicity hurried to catch up-she had been gawking at the massive plane-garage.

The tunnel was lit with modern electric sconces, but torches of fire would have been more appropriate. They walked for several minutes in silence for several minutes while she fretted mentally about how grungy she looked. Between her hair and creased clothes she hadn't showered in two days by this point. She hoped they wouldn't take her directly to Dartz, and instead would give her a place to shower and wash her clothes.

The boys stopped in front of a large, wooden door. They looked like they were mentally preparing themselves, for what she wasn't sure but it made her anxious.

"When we enter and walk up to the alter, you get down on your knee," Rafael ordered. Felicity face dropped and before she could utter a sound they pushed the door open.

This room's size rivaled the garage's. On the opposite wall were massive dragon statues, in front of that, the alter Rafael mentioned, and as the quartet made their way closer, a man wearing white robes with long teal hair became visible in the dim flame light.

He turned to greet them. The first shocking visual Felicity had was of his eyes. One was teal, like his hair, and the other gold.

Dartz threw his arms out as the boys fell to their knees, bowing to him. "Welcome, Felicity! How was your trip, my dear?"

She couldn't think straight as she stared into his eyes. Alister kept nudging her to bow but she couldn't. She noticed the gem on the chain on his forehead. It was hypnotizing, whatever it was.

"You did well, Alister. You'll be rewarded," Dartz congratulated. Alister murmured a thank you. Dartz turned around to look at the wall of what appeared to Felicity to be made up of tiny squares with unidentifiable images in them. She couldn't figure out what they were supposed to be.

"LEAVE US," he suddenly barked at the boys. They slid wary glances to each other before standing and hesitantly leaving the temple chamber.

Felicity's face flushed as she was now alone with this strange man who supposedly "knew all" about her. She had been studying the floor but at a rustling sound looked up and came face to face with Dartz.

He reached a hand out and ran it through a lock of her hair. She knew she was blushing madly. He was very handsome and she was sure he knew she thought that.

"I know you are weary from your travels, so I'll make this quick and then I'll show you to your room."

She nodded, focused on his chest instead of his face. She didn't even care that she was being rude, she couldn't focus when she looked him in the face. He allowed this, and dropped a bombshell.

"You have the rare and powerful ability to move things with your mind and alter what others think. I want you to unlock that power," Dartz said. Felicity's eyes widened and in shock she looked at his face.

"I do?"

"You don't remember?" He smirked. He waved a hand in front of her face. Suddenly a memory she had long forgotten washed over her.

She was very young, maybe three years old. She was mad about something, who knows what, throwing a tantrum in the living room of her family's old house. The screen of the TV cracked, then exploded throwing shards of glass everywhere, one nearly missing her eye. She had a tiny scar from that day, right next to her left eye which she knew existed but could never remember how she had gotten it. Until now.

Felicity stepped back with the force of the memory and stumbled, ending up on the floor. She didn't move to get back up.

"You see, dear," Dartz drawled, "I can help you recover all those memories you've forgotten. I can help you strengthen the powers you have buried in those memories, and I can help you get revenge on Jessie. After what he did to you, he deserves to die."

He reached a hand toward her, and she took it. Something cold and smooth was passed to her from the palm of his hand. He lifted her up from her position on the floor, and she withdrew her hand to look at what he had given her. While she was distracted by the glowing turquoise stone set in a platinum ring, he put one arm around her back and brought her body close to his. She was too enraptured by the aura the stone was emitting to think to pull away.

Dartz smirked. "Let me help you with that." He took her left hand in one of his again and slid the stone onto her ring finger. He kissed her knuckles, his mismatched eyes boring into hers as he watched the seal of the orichalcos flicker in them.

"You've had a long day, why don't I show you to your quarters?" He offered.

"Yes, Master Dartz."

He knew he'd never tire of hearing that.


End file.
